Frances Black (Independent)

I thank my colleague Senator Stephenson for giving me the list of names of children who have been murdered in Gaza at zero years of age. It is too hard to read out the names. I will have to leave some out because we will not have enough time to read them all. What is happening in Gaza is an absolute horror show. We are all watching live on video but it is not a show or a film; this is really happening today. People are getting wiped out. They are being starved to death and we are all watching it going on. It is absolutely outrageous. As my colleagues have said, we need action. We need a debate and a discussion. We need to be able to say what Ireland is doing. We need the occupied territories Bill to be passed. There are a great many things we need to do. I have no doubt that Ireland can and will lead out on this, as it should. We can make a difference. I have no doubt about that. I also want to quickly highlight the Associated Press report that Microsoft has cancelled the email address of the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, without notice. This comes in the wake of sanctions imposed on the court by President Trump in February of this year after a panel of ICC judges issued arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes in Gaza. Among other things, the sanctions threaten any company with fines and prison time if they provide Khan with financial material or technological support. The court has been heavily curtailed in its operations and, as a result, organisations and contractors the court relies on for its day-to-day work are ceasing communications through email in fear that they might be targeted by US authorities. What is going on in the world, for God’s sake?

We all know our own Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and the Tánaiste have both stated that Israel has committed war crimes in respect of the blockade of aid and food to Gaza over the past two months. In this context, given the response of the US Administration to the ICC arrest warrants for war crimes and the response of companies like Microsoft, which has been to pull their services under threat of legal action on the foot of this, I am deeply worried about the dependency the Oireachtas has on communications infrastructure wholly provided by an American tech company and what this means for our own digital autonomy. Those concerns are also being expressed by our European counterparts. In the Netherlands, government and public institutions are also heavily dependent on Microsoft. Dutch law requires critical infrastructure organisations to maintain a backup plan, and public sector organisations are already exploring ways to reduce their reliance on US-based cloud services. This needs to be looked at and addressed. We need serious action in respect of what is happening. What we are watching is an absolute outrage. It is beyond belief. We need action now and we really need that debate on Gaza.